Nine BYU senior gymnasts wrap up home careers with victory over Arizona State

Nine BYU senior gymnasts waved goodbye to fans and closed out their respective home careers at the Marriott Center Friday night.

After their 196.775-196.0 win against Arizona State, the seniors took the floor one last time with their families. During this time, the last few minutes of the meet were spent with the seniors and giving them a special thank you for bringing their talents to BYU.

Out of the nine seniors on the team this year, five of them competed in this last final meet against Arizona State. This season, four seniors have been injured and have not been able to compete.

Photo by BYU Photo

The Cougars ended their home season with a bang against the Sun Devils. The energy the team provided was top-tier and the energy was held all night long. There was positivity and support from teammates after each athlete completed her event.

“I feel like it is very hard to cope with emotions that you have never felt before,” said senior Mina Margraf-Benson. “It’s not real until you get here."

The fierce energy that the Cougars held all night started before Senior Night even began. They started to gather their emotions and energy not only from the past week, but during the entire season.

“I feel like we have been building from the beginning of the season,” said Margraf-Bensonk. “We had a rough start and so our goal was to get 1% better every meet and work up from what we’ve done.”

Emotions started to get more real during the team’s last week of practice.

“Our last practice before senior night, our beam coach started crying and that’s when I started to feel the first wave of the emotions,” said Margraf-Benson, “I don’t think anything really prepares you for that feeling.”

The energy that the team help all night allowed the Cougars to have leading scores in all four events.

Freshman Deb Silva took the vault with a score of 9.875. Senior Anna Bramlett Wilde received the highest score on the uneven bars with a 9.900. Senior Brynlee Anderson took home the highest score on the beam with a 9.925, and the highest score on the floor was to junior Kyle Eaqunito with a 9.925. Once Eaqunito landed that score, it was sealed for the Cougars that they were ending their season with a win.

After this win against the Sun Devils, BYU is now 5-10 overall with 3-3 in the Big 12. The Cougars will compete at Arizona next week.